Author Archive

The second Santa Cruz Forum on Community Safety and Compassion will be about homelessness and community responses.  It will also be at Santa Cruz High School, 7 PM, April 24.  Speakers include Rev. Steve Defields-Gambrel of The Circle Church, Christine Sippl, Program Manager of Homeless Persons Health Project, Susan Brutschy, President of Applied Survey Research which conducts the Homeless Census, Felipe Ponce and Danny Contreras telling personal stories of life in Santa Cruz without housing.  Cosponsors include NAACP, United Way of SC County, Charter for Compasion, Women’s Health Center, Santa Cruz Community Counseling Center, Community Action Board, Homeless Services Center, First Congregational Church of Santa Cruz, The Circle Church, Peoples’ Democratic Club, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.     BRING YOUR NEIGHBORS.

October 26-November 8 RCNV’s own Sami Abed will co-lead this delegation with Interfaith Peace Builders.  This is the journey Scott Kennedy led more many years.  Meet RCNV’s allies in Israel and Palestine.  Experience the situation.  Return enlivened by new relationships.

This delegation will provide an opportunity to participate in the Palestinian olive harvest season — generally a time of great community activism, where people of all ages from Palestine, Israeli peace and justice groups, and international groups join farmers as they reap their harvest. It is international support that makes the harvest possible in many cases. You will hear from Palestinian farmers and learn of the importance of agriculture to the Palestinian economy and culture. As with other delegations, you will also meet additional Israelis and Palestinians working for peace and justice.

To learn more about the standard components of all delegations, click here.

DEADLINE TO APPLY: Please apply by June 1st to ensure we’ll have space and be able to arrange your flight.  Our last several delegations have filled up several months before departure, so please apply as soon as possible to reserve your space.  If you’ve missed the deadline, we might still be able to add you, but please contact us ASAP to see if this is a possibility.

Friday, December 14, 2012, the lives of 26 people were taken and numerous families destroyed in Newtown, CT. As a mother, activist and human, this event not only forced me to tears but chiseled away at my trust. Aside from conversations about gun control and mental illness, it seems most important right now to support those in need, which means the Newtown community as well as our own. Whether you participate in a vigil, send cards, emails, letters or flowers, the people affected by this tragedy need to know we care. Our love will not make their losses disappear, but it may soften the pain. Please join us, the Resource Center for Nonviolence, and the Santa Cruz community, in supporting a grieving community. We invite community members to join in a vigil at 5 to 6 PM at the Town Clock in Santa Cruz. Let us come together in honor of those lives. Join friends on your own corner if you cannot make it to the Town Clock. — Candace Laning, RCNV staff member

Four week series on Nonviolence Skills continues with Peter Klotz-Chamberlin and Project Regeneration’s Irene O’Connell began on Thursday, October 25. Join us as this participatory series continues.  7:00 PM at 612 Ocean Street.  Strengthen abilities to organize nonviolent action in a mutual learning environment.  The training series is based on the book, “Resource Manual for a Living Revolution.”  We will include Theories of Action, Group Process, Meeting Facilitation, Nonviolent Action Campaign Building, Tools to Grow as Nonviolent Activists.  Sliding scale donation, no one turned away for lack of funds.  Contact Peter at electric@cruzio.com or call 423-1626.

“We Refuse to be Enemies: Story of a Palestinian Farmer.” Daoud Nassar is Director of the Tent of Nations (TON), a project on his family farm 6 Km from Bethelem.  The farm is ringed by Jewish Settlements and the encroaching Separation Wall.  In spite of having been cut off from electricity and water, Tent of Nations has managed to offer arts and education programs to area Christians, Muslims and Israelis as a means of increasing understanding of one another’s narratives.  People join together to plant trees, harvest olives and fruit and come together in solidarity in the face of direct attempts by settlers from surrounding Israeli settlements to intimidate them off the land they have owned since 1916.  Dauod’s new book, “Daher’s Vineyard: The Story about the Tent of Nations,” will be available.  Contact Darrell Yeaney, suedy2@comcast.net.